Deal on Calif. Water Transfers Scuttled

LAURA WIDES

Published 12:09 pm, Monday, April 25, 2016

Associated Press Writer

EL CENTRO, Calif. _ California appeared headed toward cuts in its water supply after irrigation officials failed to work out differences in a deal to sell water from the Colorado River to coastal cities.

Officials with the Imperial Irrigation District in southeastern California met a federal deadline Tuesday to share its water with growing San Diego County or trigger a cut of 13 percent of the water the state has been taking from the river.

But neighboring districts rejected the 11th-hour offer, saying the new terms of the proposed water transfer to San Diego no longer met federal criteria because Imperial could back out in as little as a year. And, they said, the deal would be too expensive for consumers.

Assistant Interior Secretary Bennett Raley, head of the department's Western water issues, told reporters in a conference call before Imperial's 3-2 vote that it was already too late to stop the cuts.

The last-minute timing of the vote left no time for three other agencies to approve the deal, he said. The supply cuts could be rescinded if the water agencies eventually reach an agreement, Raley said.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, a wholesaler that serves 17 million people through other agencies, has said that in any event it has enough water to supply its millions of customers for two years.

The Imperial board voted after meetings that lasted much of the day. Board member Bruce Kuhn said he believed the panel had approved a better deal than it originally was offered.

"There's no such thing as a perfect document. No document is," Kuhn said. "This has divided the farm community. I have good friends who were friends from grammar school who are fighting over this thing. It's time to put it behind us."

The Metropolitan Water District was one of the entities opposed to the version of the deal approved by the Imperial district.

MWD chief Ron Gastelum said in a statement that the district could not support it because of "last-minute terms which deviate substantially from aspects of the October agreement" which Imperial tentatively signed.

"In the end IID's demands ask every household in the state to put up about another $30 for its transfer deal with no caps for future costs. The last time an 11th-hour proposal was hastily approved (in California) it created an energy crisis. This will not be the case with water," Gastelum said.

For almost a century, Imperial County has used more than a trillion gallons of Colorado River water a year to turn the desert into rich, green farms that provide much of the country's winter vegetables. The district has balked at giving up water.

But in recent years, pressure has mounted on all sides to share that wealth. To the west, fast-growing San Diego wants to secure more of the river as a long-term water supply for homes and businesses. To the east, six other states want California to cut its overuse of the river so they can take their rightful shares.